Time’s up for the Yes2Rail blog, which I launched on June 30, 2008 as a paid consultant on Honolulu's elevated rail project. Yes2Rail’s August 13, 2012 post was its last following the author's move to Sacramento, CA. You’re invited to read four-plus years of information-packed entries, many of which are linked at our “aggregation site.” Look for the paragraph with red copy in the right-hand column, below. Mahalo for all the positive comments Yes2Rail received since its start.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Rail Critic Keeps Popping Up All over the Place

You never know where Dr. Panos “I’ll Stop Rail in Its Tracks” Prevedouros will show up with yet another adjective-laden opinion piece that describes Honolulu’s future rail project in the worst way possible.

He’s not alone in holding rail up against this impossible standard – impossible because traffic obviously increases with population growth. Honolulu rail critic Cliff Slater and former Governor Ben Cayetano also subscribe to this view.

Dr. Prevedouros’s piece at newgeography.com is filled with comparisons and anecdotes on rail transit projects around the world and other observations related only tangentially or not at all to Honolulu rail – projects in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Edinburgh, Scotland; Honolulu’s sewage issues; local airport, harbor and road repairs; public employee pensions and medical benefits, etc.

The University of Hawaii professor covers considerable territory, but nowhere in his 1002-word commentary is there a single phrase about Honolulu rail’s goals and its basic function – to provide a completely traffic-free way to travel through the urban core and connect Honolulu to Oahu’s "Second City" of Kapolei and nearby communities in the island’s western region.

Left unsaid is the obvious fact that Honolulu’s population growth will be restricted by geography and designated by the Honolulu General Plan for a relatively confined space – between mountains and the ocean on the ewa plain. Transportation planners for decades have said Honolulu’s physical layout is an ideal example of a community that can be served by a grade-separated rail system that’s complemented by feeder buses.

Dr. Prevedouros covers none of that and also leaves out his preferred method to address traffic and population growth – high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes, of which he himself has written: “Higher tolls are necessary to discourage overloading.”

In other words, HOT lanes are for the well-to-do who can afford them. The rest of us get to creep along in surface street congestion. Elevated rail will be Honolulu's alternative to traffic creep.

This Just In – Not

The Hawaii Reporter website headlined a story yesterday: “City Rents Downtown Office Space for Rail at $1.4 Million a Year” The story began:

“The City & County of Honolulu…has leased premium office space in the midst of Honolulu’s pricey downtown civic center. The Honolulu Rail Transit Project (HART) offices occupy the entire 17 and 23 floors of Alii Place.” The story also reports HART has “136 new city employees.”

This apparently was “news” to Hawaii Reporter, but as Civil Beat noted and has been well-understood by other news media, HART took over existing city resources and obligations when it officially began operating on July 1. Civil Beat reported November 3 on the voters’ approval of all five city charter amendments, including HART’s creation:

“The move means the city’s rapid transit division – now one of five divisions in the Honolulu Transportation Department – will split away from the city to become (HART). The new agency will use the Alii Place work space the division already uses….”

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This Isn't Political

Yes2Rail is a blog about the Honolulu rail transit project, which has become the key issue in this year’s mayoral race. We comment on the candidates’ plans to address Oahu’s growing congestion problem and whether those plans could meet the need as well as elevated rail can and will. That’s not the same as criticizing the candidates, and we urge our readers to recognize the difference.

Another red-light runner meets Denver at-grade train, 6.13.12

Honolulu rail will be elevated, with zero possibility for accidents like those shown in this column in cities with at-grade systems. Visit our "aggregation site" for much more on why elevated rail is the only reasonable way to build Honolulu rail.

What riding the train will avoid

Bus Accident Aftermath on H-1

'Black Tuesday'--9/5/06 Crash Produced Nightmare Commute

Typical H-1 Traffic

About Me

After five years of active-duty service as an Army officer with duty stations in West Berlin and South Vietnam, reported and edited for newspapers and broadcast stations (including all-news radio) in Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles and Honolulu. Covered Honolulu city government for the Honolulu Advertiser and KGMB-TV. Served on Congressman Cec Heftel's staff in Honolulu and Washington, then managed corporate communications and was Hawaiian Electric Company's spokesman for nearly a decade. A communications consultant for 19 years before moving to California in 2012. Launched, produced and hosted Hawaii Public Radio's "live" weekly "Energy Futures" public affairs program in 2009-10. Authored books on The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific ("Punchbowl" 1982) and on the decline of standard grammar in business and society ("Me and Him Are Killing English!" 2007). Now an information officer with the California Department of Water Resources.